RIM's PlayBook was beat out by Microsoft's offerings last quarter. This seems surprising, given that Microsoft doesn't even have a dedicated tablet offering system, instead relying on a clunky modified version of Windows 7. (Source: Venture Beat)

Android's tablets increased in market share more than 10-fold in a year. The growth is closely paralleling Android's growth in the smart phone market, which would indicate that Android will be the clear cut market leader by next year. (Source: Engadget)

The fact that Microsoft beat RIM is particularly exciting for the company, as
it did so without a dedicated tablet OS or support for ARM processors -- widely
viewed as the best solution for the tablet space. When Windows 8, an OS
with a tablet-centric design, comes a-calling in 2012,
packing ARM CPUs, one would imagine Microsoft
could do very well.

On the other hand, RIM is left to contemplate its next move. Clearly its
new QNX operating system, while perhaps better than the previous Blackberry OS,
isn't thrilling customers.

Apple, Inc. (AAPL),
maker of the incredibly popular iPad experienced somewhat mixed news, as well.
While it is still seeing terrific growth in tablet unit sales, its market
share shrunk year-to-year, dropping from 94.3 percent in Q2 2010 to 61.3
percent in the most recent quarter.

Tablet sales rose 331 percent, so Apple still did quite well. But tablets
sporting Google Inc.'s (GOOG)
Android OS are eroding Apple's lead, with sales of Android designs jumping from
2.9 percent to 30 percent in a single year.

The situation seems eerily reminiscent to Android's growth in the smart phone
sector, where Android jumped from being a virtual bit player, to being a strong
second, to being the clear-cut market leader, in a 2-year span.

Of course, it's possibly Android could see its market share momentum slow or
even reverse, if Apple can succeed in convincing U.S. courts to ban its
competitors' products from the market. Apple is currently suing [1][2][3][4][5] the top three Android device makers,
seeking injunctions to prevent them from selling product in the U.S., on the
premise that Android OS "steal[s]" patented ideas from Apple.

If Apple's bid to kill Android with lawsuits falls short, though, it may find
itself in second place within a year. And with Microsoft looking poised
to finally get serious about tablets in 2012, the Cupertino gadget maker is
surely a bit concerned.

The market share numbers in the report were generated using collected sales
figures, arguably the most accurate form of market share reporting. The
report is available for a cool $7,000.

"Intel is investing heavily (think gazillions of dollars and bazillions of engineering man hours) in resources to create an Intel host controllers spec in order to speed time to market of the USB 3.0 technology." -- Intel blogger Nick Knupffer